The simple answer is—it depends! This article will present a series of arguments so the reader (and diver) can make that decision, as ultimately, it is the diver who is choosing to get in the water and expose themselves to the risks therein.

There is a significant body of evidence which shows that divers involved in diving incidents often make poor decisions—sounds obvious, doesn’t it? So if it is so obvious, why do we continue to make them?

Some of the readers may remember an article I wrote on this subject a couple of years ago, but this one will go into much more depth and give examples of the issues faced in both the scuba diving community and other environments, which have more e

The reason why the presentations and consensus statement arrived at this position was because there is considerable evidence from aviation, medicine and other fields and disciplines that shows the proper use of checklists reduces the probability o

But just culture is only one part of a safety culture, a term which is being promoted by a number of organisations and individuals as something that needs to be developed by individual divers to improve their safety.

Gareth Lock is an accomplished technical diver based in the United Kingdom. Recently retired from the Royal Air Force, he is now teaching Human Factors in the Oil & Gas sector. Lock is also undertaking a part-time PhD examining the role of human factors in scuba diving incidents. For more information, visit: HumanFactors.academy.

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